ILX Gonna Shine in My Backdoor Someday (new post-Fahey folk for ppl posting in Takoma/Tompkins Square threads Pt II)

neal - or others - what microphones/mic pres do you guys use? this coming year i need to get serious about recording an album

like your new stuff neal

the only Tashi Dorji song on Spotify is a cool little curio, electronic remix featuring his guitar of a song by some psychey dude name Al Lover

http://open.spotify.com/track/2HxzI5VuTvgdbTGolZ7x7G

Thanks dudes, I have always just been using a portable digital Tascam recorder from B&H Photo that I bought a while back. It fits in your pocket so I've used it while out and walking around, but it's not a good choice for recording guitar at this point, I loved it at first bc of how much of an improvement it was over using the internal MacBook mic. I sold my two amps (+all other musical electronics) years ago during collage, which I regret now. As I would like to record traditionally with a mic and amp set up. Either using the sound hole or install a pick up. How about USB mics? Been talked about here before I think. Decent clarity from the models available now?

I think the solution is to just meet someone in town with a set up :) - that way I can avoid all of this.

I've posted things upthread recorded with the Blue Yeti (120 new but you can def find a ton of these used on ebay, got mine for 80 on craigslist)
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=857749&gclid=Cj0KEQiA8MSkBRCP5LaRlcOAusMBEiQAiqldkgFeoLzZuCr_Hg1GQ03TBk1qSggFdqEqo5fQpNn1jLgaAgF98P8HAQ&is=REG&Q=&A=details

you can hear the stuff i've done, which is minimally processed, a bit EQd and maybe compressed slighty with some audicity plugin reverb on it, but overall I'd say USB mics have come a long way

of course, I'm just plotting about how I want to get a USB DAC/Mic pre unit and a better XLR mic so I suppose one is always unsatisfied.

gonna check out yr new thing neal! i've dug the rag lore things i've heard so far.
just got hipped to this thing via soft abuse's twitter -- maybe it was mentioned on the old thread? https://moonbros.bandcamp.com/album/frijolillo - kind of low-key/dreamy/fieldrecording-y/acoustic action. i like it!

Neal there is also a USB model of the Blue Spark which is supposed to be great on acoustics

Nice yeah, I remember reading a while back about you UMS using the Blue Yeti for your material. If you search a phrase like 'USB mic acoustic guitar' on youtube the Blue Yeti seems to comes up the most, also something called the Snowball. Though, I think based on the sound samples the Yeti comes out on top. I'll look into that Blue Spark too.

No other time than now to get a project down. Should defiantly put together something. Stick it on a tape and send it to people, flinging around links is nerve racking sometimes though.

I used to work at the main public library of Virginia and was hired at the perfect moment where they were getting rid of all the old analog stereo equipment and vinyl records. It was a dream to hoard of that kind of stuff. I got a working reel to reel, but haven't yet grabbed any tape to use it. Would love to have it up and running.

Reel to reel would sound great

Grandavis did you end up heading to the hometown Daniel Bachman gig in Fredericksburg? A full video of it was posted a few days ago - includes some of the new material that should be coming up on the Three Lobed Record.

vimeo.com/114599709

Nah, I had to skip it as it was early in the day and I had too much to do. Watched the video already though! Wanna reiterate that I really like the new tunes that'll be on the next record. Bachman is chugging along into some sweet territory. The lap stuff is a real joy live too.

listening to that new Bachman right now, loving it, getting some sweet "Paris, Texas" vibes off of "Coming Home"

btw global is gonna be opening for bachman in mpls in the new year!

Very good shows happening in mpls these days, would love to catch that Metzger one (w/ Global and UMS) as well. Have fun with that.

Pretty nice playlist here from John Mulvey (his Uncut series). Lots of stuff hit up in this thread, but throwing more kudos towards Neal's Rag Lore "Blue For al-Watawit of Yashkur" tracks. Cool to see folks from here getting out there and bringing it. Hope you get that record made this year UMS!

my goal is to upgrade to a small basement studio, been scoping out gear and i think i get get a good setup going for less than $500

so easy to get obsessed w/researching gear/recording stuff but you also gotta remember that you won't ever make anything 1/2 as a good as a blind blake record that was recorded at less fidelity than the microphone on your iphone

i use my phone to record and i think it sounds pretty good!

for a basement recording with a device not built intentionally to record music

i am usually amazed by how good those iphone recordings come out. i mean, obviously not pro quality or anything... but good!

fwiw I once again voice my preference for separate threads for making this music / listening to this music. I'd frequent both, but these threads get p unwieldy as it is without microphone reviews and stuff.

merry christmas guys

"hello there, uh John Fahey here.."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrJQystmyl8

I thought "https" was supposed to block video embeds?

Oh well :/ still wishing well to everyone here anyway!

Alright, ventured into test threads.

Both "http" and "https" will embed viewable youtubes for me in Safari and Chrome.
If I use "www" as well as no URL prefix at all, the video won't embed.

Though, if I head back to the old thread, "https" links are still the way they were: not embedded.
That's all I've got, maybe this isn't the case for everyone else, but I'll leave out all http(s) going forward.

Always nice to spin the New Possibility during Xmas

this track here sounding awesome. wish records from these folks weren't so expensive to get shipped to the states... they're all so great!!

http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2013/12/10/black-dirt-oak-wayawanda-patent/

http://www.thefader.com/2014/05/01/another-country-folk-newcomer-myriam-gendron-sings-the-heartbroken-poetry-of-dorothy-parker

hey my wife came across this LP bc she's a massive dorothy parker fan and we mail-ordered it, it's music set to lyrics taken from parker's poetry. i think it would appeal to a lot of you guys.

heh, i just sold that to somebody. i liked it, but found i wasn't returning to it very often.

was listening to "the new possibility" last night and realized i don't really like it all that much. it seems very staid and unexciting compared to other fahey albums of the era. not the same heady mix of influences except in a few isolated passages. how to fahey fans rate those xmas albums anyway?

i think it sounds like a good idea on paper but it's a bit flat overall. especially as he kept on doing more and more of them. i think definitely an attempt to get some crossover money from the windham hill/leo kottke 'hot tub music' crowd.

don't really need to listen to it when i've got the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack

the crossover money must have worked for him, pretty sure every single fahey section in used record stores around town is stocked with multiple copies of those. i'm always hopeful when i start to rifle through and then i see a dozen xmas lps and one battered to shit copy of 'after the ball'...

The second Fahey christmas album is way better than the first because it sounds less like a christmas album and more like a proper Fahey album.

yeah, i do like that one better... ironically (?) that one is harder to find, i think it's OOP.

Speaking as a fan of Fahey and a fan of Christmas music, I don't listen to them much either - they sound too dry, austere to bring me much joy.

i th ink of them as being more conventionally pretty but less engaging than other fahey albums.

it's also sort of jarring to hear a lot of fahey's 'tricks' and picking techniques applied to something so straightforward as a christmas song you've heard a million times

"christ's saints of god fantasy" is a legit great piece, I like the slightly ridiculous russian christmas overture on the second album a lot too. all the best fahey duets are on old fashioned love imo but the ruskin ones aren't bad. I like some of the standards esp silent night on slide guitar, that's so gorgeous. the last piece on the second album is a bizarre mix of fahey in brooding bola sete mode and festive cheer that's my kind of christmas tune

^Agreed about "Christ's Saints of God Fantasy". From what I can recall, there were more than a couple moments that I do dig on the New Possibility. Maybe it's that all those moments came from this tune + "Silent Night".

The New Possibility (1968)
Christmas With John Fahey Volume II (1975)
Christmas Guitar - Volume One (1982)
Popular Songs of Christmas & New Years - with Terry Robb (1983)

I've always confusingly stared at inclusion of "Volume One" on the 1980 release, maybe it's because Varrick envisioned an entire series of "Christmas Guitar" on their label? Come to think of it, I've never listened to the 1983 release with Terry Robb. Not exactly a Christmas album, but "Yes, Jesus Loves Me - Guitar Hymns" (1980), could be included in this vein as well, and I'd say it's a pretty good one. Fahey is probably the only Christian music I've loved this much, hah! Imagine if his only recorded output was the Christmas albums and albums of hymns. What would our contemporary look like?

**I've always confusingly stared at inclusion of "Volume One" on the 1982 release

IIRC the playing can get a little sloppy (or "goopy" IMO) on yes, jesus loves me, but it's still somehow one of the better fahey albums, just because he draws a lot of inspiration from those old hymns.

i wonder why the 2nd christmas LP hasn't been properly reissued/remastered.

I was taking a look at discogs for that post and noticed Takoma & Rhino combined both Christmas volume 1 and 2 for a CD and cassette reissue in 1993. Then in 2012 Burnside Records cropped melodies and combined material from what looks like all the Christmas albums for a compilation generically titled "The John Fahey Christmas Album"... and in the process used a variation on the "Yes, Jesus Loves Me" album art for the cover of their comp. Man, if his catalog isn't one confusing thing after another.

Another bit of odd info is that Fahey used one of Ragtime Ralph's (credited as Ralph Johnston) compositions on the "Christmas Guitar - Volume One" album. I've always been bummed that Ralph's work still remain's officially unreleased at this point in time. Thankfully he used the resources of the internet though and has shared all his stuff with us that way. He says he's got a new album "Delta Slider Blues" ready for next year on his self-release label Empty Square.

I guess I'll be the one to stump for the New Possibility, where I can understand why people don't like it as a great Fahey record, and it is very autere and fairly unadventerous for him but I guess I sort of grew up going to a Lutheran church so I kind of find some kind of odd power in those fusty white key hymnal melodies and I think something in them resonates w.Fahey as well, whether it was greed driven or not it certainly wouldn't be the first or last time someone created art while trying to make a buck

but yeah it's very stately and sort of mournful to me, which i guess could be gloopy or overly staid to another's ears but something about it resonates w/me

it's definitely one of the most "uncool" Fahey records, maybe aside from the corny parts of Old Fashioned Love (which I kinda like too actually)

but yeah xmas hymns sort of resonate in some way back part of my mind being a little kid and going to "candlelight" xmas eve services w/my grandma or mom, where they turn the lights down and everyone gets to hold a candle which seemed really eerie to me in a way that stuff can only seem when you are very little

but yeah xmas hymns sort of resonate in some way back part of my mind being a little kid and going to "candlelight" xmas eve services w/my grandma or mom, where they turn the lights down and everyone gets to hold a candle which seemed really eerie to me in a way that stuff can only seem when you are very little

I have the same exact resonance with tunes like "Silent Night" and childhood church experiences. Can remember some seriously extended versions (that would be primarily instrumental) that would go as long as it would take for the candle-lighting to make its way to the back of the room. I got lost in that moment for sure, both eerie and beautiful and heavy all at once. Still love that tune (as evidenced by the cover I posted last year).

I will also rep for New Possibility, my mom would play that during the holidays when I was young and I've always loved it, it is certainly a different beast though

i dig the new possibility, austere is a very good word for it though

http://www.discogs.com/artist/1846960-Ralph-Johnston

Over the past day or so I went all in and submitted all of Ralph Johnston's Ragtime Ralph/Blind Brand X projects to the Discogs database. Good lord is that a tedious process. But I wanted to make sure his solo guitar discography is noted alongside his past efforts as a member of various surf (!) and experimental bands. Then, when I visited the profile page for the surf band he founded in 1989, I came across this gem:

Vancouver’s The Surfdusters were founded in 1989 by lead guitarist Ralph Johnston and rhythm guitarist Rich Hagensen. The played their last live appearance in November 2001.
Eleven of their instrumentals, all from the ‘Save The Waves’ CD, have been featured in various episodes of SpongeBob Square Pants.

haha wow! good work too. had no idea he was into surf guitar too, glenn jones too of course, anyone else?

degrees of separation between spongebob and skip james just shrunk considerably

Sorry to break topic here, but what is the opinion on Alexander Turnquist? I just picked up Flying Fantasy. It's very orchestrated Leo Kottke-ish on acid, kind of. Does he fit in with this crowd?

I say he fits. I enjoyed Flying Fantasy but I think I liked the previous one Hallway of Mirrors more.

2026 might be the year i rededicate myself to Post-Fahey Thread Music and post here more. just skimmed this thread for the first time in a while and it remains a delight.

from Drag City Weekly News:

OUT NOW:
TASHI DORJI - LOW CLOUDS HANG, THIS LAND IS ON FIRE

After two full-lengths firing off tumultuous acoustic improvisations — Stateless and we will be wherever the fires are lit — Tashi Dorji's playing now wades into a pool of electric guitar ambience. low clouds hang, this land is on fire is a political statement, as always, but one that dials into more avant-garde territory as Tashi seeks a meditative silence through his intricate guitar improvisations.

low clouds hang, this land is on fire is out now! Tashi continues his tour tonight with a show at Tubby's in Kingston.
Tashi Dorji 2026 Tour Dates

Jan. 30 - Kingston, NY @ Tubby's *

Jan. 31 - Florence, MA @ Feeding Tube Records *

Feb. 1 - New York, NY @ Cassette *

Feb. 15 - Asheville, NC @ AyurPrana Listening Room ^

* w/ Che Chen

^ w/ Mdou Moctar

LISTEN + ORDER HERE

love this Cole Berliner track
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbEGG7oAeRM

wow, me too - thanks!

trying to find more info on the recording of the gimmer nicholson 'christopher idylls' record (a classic) and found the horse's mouth

neve1073 wrote on Sat, 12 February 2005 20:08

Hi Terry,

I listened to "Christopher Idylls" all night last night. What a beautiful, eccentric and unusual record! Were you involved in the making of that?

I'd love to find out about how that record was recorded and Gimmer's compositional and recording approaches. Lot's of precision overdubbing?

(I downloaded it off itunes so I have no notes or credits.)

Best,

Jason

Hi Jason,

Thank you. Yes, I produced and engineered this somewhat eclectic recording, "Christopher Idylls" by Gimmer Nicholson..

Larry (Gimmer) Nicholson had been a staple around the Memphis folk/blues scene in the very early 60's. He had a partner whose last name was Wimmer, so they played as (........drum roll...........), you guessed it, Wimmer and Gimmer. Much better sounding name than Simon and Garfunkle, don't you think?

Gimmer was a true free spirit, gentle and kind, but a bit odd sometimes. The lure of San Francisco in those heady days was too much for him, so he migrated out there to join the scene. He wrote the compositions on this album there, looking out across a peaceful nearby Pacific bay. He recorded demos onto a low-rent quarter track reel-to-reel machine, but didn't know what to do with them. There was very little, if any, music like this being released. But he sent the tape to his brother Gary, who still lived in Memphis. Gary brought the tape to me in 1968, asking for any help or advice I could give. When he brought it in, the pitiful little 5" reel of 1/4" tape was not in any box, but instead was dropped down into a small, crumpled, brown paper bag. I was not expecting much, given this presentation, but when it played, I was captivated by the melodies. They were beautiful, rolling, majestic, almost then-modern-pre-new-age-Bach. I told his brother to get Gimmer in there with me, as soon as possible.

Gimmer Nicholson came back from SF, and we went into the studio at Ardent on National Street. I recorded on an 8 track 1" Scully at 30 ips. Although most of the guitar is acoustic, there is actually some electric also. Gimmer had a Gibson Howard Roberts, a beautiful jazz guitar that is almost an acoustic (I liked it so much that I bought one a few years later, but I stupidly sold it when I moved here to Nassau in '92). He played that through a Fender Bassman blackface amp, through some kind of guitar delay/repeat box I had, which had just come out. Gimmer was euphoric about the delay, and loved to set it very long, then play a phrase, and when it repeated, he would play live a copasetic second phrase, then do the same for the next bar, playing with the second phrase, and so on (sort of like a "round"). When we did the acoustics, I got the longest tape delay that I could to accomplish this. It had to be carefully timed to the tempo of the composition. EMT 140 plate reverb was also used.

There was indeed much precision overdubbing. There was an idea floating around that this was unacceptable, as this was really folk music, and they didn't overdub. So it was thought that music lovers wouldn't accept this 'bastardisation.' Of course, that's ridiculous today!

Everyone around our little "house" at that time was in love with this album, including Chris Bell. As mentioned before in another thread, this was at least a good part of the inspiration for such Big Star acoustic sounds as "Thirteen." In fact this album was to have been the very first release on our new Ardent label, before Big Star, and before our actual first release by Cargoe, a group from Tulsa. But a "thing" happened, from which I learned a big lesson, a thing I have seen repeated over the years. I made a very quick rough 'board' mix of the tunes right after we tracked, and Gimmer took a copy home to listen to it. Of course, he "got used" to this rough mix. When I later did an actual, careful, final mix, I just took it in to the Stax Neumann mastering lathe, and did a mastering job on it, preparing for release. Photographs were taken of a Danish crystal prism, with light coming through it, coloured by the refraction (a bit like the later Pink Floyd concept, but a real photograph). A record number was assigned. But when Gimmer heard this real mix, he was surprised, and he really didn't like the album cover idea. He got pretty upset, saying things about the corporations ruining the artist's ideas, and stormed out. Of course, we weren't a corporation, and we were always trying to be totally sensitive to the artist, but he had left in a huff, and everyone was upset. So we shelved the release, and went on with our pop/rock stuff. Gimmer later apologised, and agreed that the real mix was much better, but we never got back to releasing it. I didn't put it out until about 1992, when it was released on my small Lucky Seven label, distributed through Rounder. This time, I used two beautiful photographs by my and Gimmer's friend, the famous photographer William Eggleston, on the cover. It never sold very much, but I don't care; I love it so, I'm just glad it is there for posterity.

Gimmer left again, and worked for many years for the Red Cross, going into the places around the world where huge disasters had hit, helping people out, rebuilding homes, feeding the hungry, actually doing something for his fellow man. He never made any money at all. We kept in touch sporadically, but he did call me here about four years ago, saying that he had finally had found time to write a couple of new compositions...would I still be interested in recording with him? I said "Of course, just let me know when you're ready." But he became ill, and sadly died last year, so we never got to do the "follow up" album.

May he rest in peace.

Terry

https://repforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php?topic=5781.0

wow thx

yes